Mags L Halliday
@magslhalliday.bsky.social
Writer. Waffler. Former redhead. Occasional public sector comms person. All views my own.
Currently open to commissions or interim roles.
She/Her.
Please use alt text on images.
www.magslhalliday.co.uk or https://linktr.ee/magslhalliday
Currently open to commissions or interim roles.
She/Her.
Please use alt text on images.
www.magslhalliday.co.uk or https://linktr.ee/magslhalliday
Pinned
twilight sparkle from my little pony laying on a shelf looking at a book
Alt: twilight sparkle from my little pony laying on a shelf reading a book and using her magic to flip the page.
media.tenor.com
It’s my 2026 books finished thread!
(For the purposes of the list, gazetteers where I’ve read the intro essays will also be counted.)
(For the purposes of the list, gazetteers where I’ve read the intro essays will also be counted.)
There are twelve boys names. Except not really because there were two Peters in the apostles. Or maybe two James? Two Thomases? Whatever.
February 9, 2026 at 8:59 PM
There are twelve boys names. Except not really because there were two Peters in the apostles. Or maybe two James? Two Thomases? Whatever.
Reposted by Mags L Halliday
Bloody hell just seen this "tribute" to John Virgo on Facebook. Possibly the worst thing I've ever seen.
And will this snooker ball be the new Paddington? (Or penguin, I can't keep up).
And will this snooker ball be the new Paddington? (Or penguin, I can't keep up).
February 9, 2026 at 5:24 PM
Bloody hell just seen this "tribute" to John Virgo on Facebook. Possibly the worst thing I've ever seen.
And will this snooker ball be the new Paddington? (Or penguin, I can't keep up).
And will this snooker ball be the new Paddington? (Or penguin, I can't keep up).
This guide on burrito-ing your cat fails to meet PTerry’s Unadulterated Cat book levels of explaining how to give a cat meds as it doesn’t cover the many ways a cat can escape the burrito.
How to Make a Cat Burrito for Handling
Learn to wrap your cat in a towel for easier handling. Discover how to make a "cat burrito" to ease stress and improve safety for both you and your pet.
www.thesprucepets.com
February 9, 2026 at 5:20 PM
This guide on burrito-ing your cat fails to meet PTerry’s Unadulterated Cat book levels of explaining how to give a cat meds as it doesn’t cover the many ways a cat can escape the burrito.
Buffy currently deeply, deeply offended that I ended up making a cat burrito to dose her with some meds. Even an early tea has not stopped the reproachful “Jail for Mother! Jail for a thousand years!” looks.
February 9, 2026 at 5:15 PM
Buffy currently deeply, deeply offended that I ended up making a cat burrito to dose her with some meds. Even an early tea has not stopped the reproachful “Jail for Mother! Jail for a thousand years!” looks.
This is a great thread, highlighting the hidden power of craft, networks and building community, and the implicit patriarchal bias that informs complaining* about them as not being “proper” activism.
*it’s not even a critique, dudes, it’s just about devaluing types of labour other than your own.
*it’s not even a critique, dudes, it’s just about devaluing types of labour other than your own.
Please don't accuse people in knitted hats of only wearing their supposed politics if all you're doing is posting, which is basically just another way of wearing your politics. It's a silly thing to attack people over in any case. Using fashion to signal support for ongoing acts of rebellion is good
February 9, 2026 at 3:32 PM
This is a great thread, highlighting the hidden power of craft, networks and building community, and the implicit patriarchal bias that informs complaining* about them as not being “proper” activism.
*it’s not even a critique, dudes, it’s just about devaluing types of labour other than your own.
*it’s not even a critique, dudes, it’s just about devaluing types of labour other than your own.
I am surprised no editor at the *London* Review of Books noticed.
February 9, 2026 at 2:27 PM
I am surprised no editor at the *London* Review of Books noticed.
Reposted by Mags L Halliday
Even in this thoughtful and excellent essay, the exceptionalism is hard to shake. "Where else but in America could a left-wing, brown-skinned immigrant, a racialised ‘other’, become the mayor of a globally influential city?" Who is the mayor of London? Who are the mayors of Montreal and Toronto?
‘As the Swedish diplomatic historian Anders Stephanson writes, “the alarming fact” is that “everyone on this earth has an enormous stake in how the United States chooses to be and act in this world.” Not just enormous, but existential.’
Adam Shatz’s Winter Lecture:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Adam Shatz’s Winter Lecture:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Adam Shatz · Another Country: Visions of America
Is America a dream or a nightmare, a democratic paradise or a bastion of white supremacy and religious intolerance? Is...
www.lrb.co.uk
February 9, 2026 at 2:04 PM
Even in this thoughtful and excellent essay, the exceptionalism is hard to shake. "Where else but in America could a left-wing, brown-skinned immigrant, a racialised ‘other’, become the mayor of a globally influential city?" Who is the mayor of London? Who are the mayors of Montreal and Toronto?
In 1994 the Pet Shop Boys were invited to perform 'Go West' at the Brit Awards.
They agreed and brought with them 3 separate choirs of miners. Some of those miners had marched with the gay and lesbian members of LGSM in the 1980s. It is one of the great, near-lost music moments
vimeo.com/293437684
They agreed and brought with them 3 separate choirs of miners. Some of those miners had marched with the gay and lesbian members of LGSM in the 1980s. It is one of the great, near-lost music moments
vimeo.com/293437684
Pet Shop Boys • Go West (Live At Brit Awards) • 1994
Pet Shop Boys выступают вживую на Брит Эвордс 1994 с шахтерским хором.
vimeo.com
February 9, 2026 at 1:09 PM
Come to sunny Devon, they said. It'll be fun, they said.
Feel like the rain hasn’t stopped? ☔
For some places, it really hasn’t! 😦
North Wyke, Cardinham and Astwood Bank have recorded rain every single day so far this year 🌧️
For some places, it really hasn’t! 😦
North Wyke, Cardinham and Astwood Bank have recorded rain every single day so far this year 🌧️
February 9, 2026 at 12:50 PM
Come to sunny Devon, they said. It'll be fun, they said.
Bromley-by-Bow.
February 9, 2026 at 9:43 AM
Bromley-by-Bow.
Reposted by Mags L Halliday
Mornington Crescent: a rant.
Or: how a goofy word game about train stations is the key to how devout causes can ruin people's ability to have a conversation.
Stand clear of the closing doors, let's begin.
1/18
Or: how a goofy word game about train stations is the key to how devout causes can ruin people's ability to have a conversation.
Stand clear of the closing doors, let's begin.
1/18
February 9, 2026 at 8:51 AM
Mornington Crescent: a rant.
Or: how a goofy word game about train stations is the key to how devout causes can ruin people's ability to have a conversation.
Stand clear of the closing doors, let's begin.
1/18
Or: how a goofy word game about train stations is the key to how devout causes can ruin people's ability to have a conversation.
Stand clear of the closing doors, let's begin.
1/18
Reposted by Mags L Halliday
3D has been the “go to” saviour of cinema at the times in history when it has been most threatened (50s with rise of TV, 80s with home video, 00s/10s with online piracy). Every time it’s been touted as the only way cinema can survive. Every time it’s gone away very quietly and at great expense.
February 9, 2026 at 8:05 AM
3D has been the “go to” saviour of cinema at the times in history when it has been most threatened (50s with rise of TV, 80s with home video, 00s/10s with online piracy). Every time it’s been touted as the only way cinema can survive. Every time it’s gone away very quietly and at great expense.
Reposted by Mags L Halliday
Owls are good. Some are superb.
February 8, 2026 at 7:24 PM
Owls are good. Some are superb.
Reposted by Mags L Halliday
the magic of the Muppets is that there are two fourth walls. they constantly break the one that reminds the audience they are performers. they NEVER break the one that reminds the audience they are puppets. this dynamic is the key to their entire comedy style
MY KIDS: so why are there muppets in the AUDIENCE
ME: THE CONCEIT!! IS THAT THEY'RE PUTTING ON A VARIETY SHOW!!! IN A WORLD WHERE MUPPET AND HUMAN COEXIST!!! YOU ARE WATCHING A DOCUMENTARY!! FILMED!! IN REAL TIME!!!
ME: THE CONCEIT!! IS THAT THEY'RE PUTTING ON A VARIETY SHOW!!! IN A WORLD WHERE MUPPET AND HUMAN COEXIST!!! YOU ARE WATCHING A DOCUMENTARY!! FILMED!! IN REAL TIME!!!
February 8, 2026 at 6:22 AM
the magic of the Muppets is that there are two fourth walls. they constantly break the one that reminds the audience they are performers. they NEVER break the one that reminds the audience they are puppets. this dynamic is the key to their entire comedy style
Teen is studying rise of Hitler for GCSE. You can imagine the dinner time chats about the warnings from history.
February 8, 2026 at 3:37 PM
Teen is studying rise of Hitler for GCSE. You can imagine the dinner time chats about the warnings from history.
Reposted by Mags L Halliday
Just in case you should need one, all of The Nazis: A Warning from History is now on the iPlayer
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0074kmy
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0074kmy
The Nazis: A Warning from History - 1. Helped into Power
Documentary series examining how Hitler came to power. By January 1933, Germany had voted for a chancellor who was openly opposed to democracy.
www.bbc.co.uk
February 8, 2026 at 1:27 PM
Just in case you should need one, all of The Nazis: A Warning from History is now on the iPlayer
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0074kmy
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0074kmy
Oh, and beehiv.
February 7, 2026 at 5:46 PM
Oh, and beehiv.
This may not seem new, given the Atlantic wrote about Substack having a Nazi problem in 2023, but it provides a current snapshot.
Useful if you’re a comms/PR person whose senior leader wants a substack.
Ghost and buttondown seem to be the popular alternatives.
Useful if you’re a comms/PR person whose senior leader wants a substack.
Ghost and buttondown seem to be the popular alternatives.
February 7, 2026 at 5:42 PM
This may not seem new, given the Atlantic wrote about Substack having a Nazi problem in 2023, but it provides a current snapshot.
Useful if you’re a comms/PR person whose senior leader wants a substack.
Ghost and buttondown seem to be the popular alternatives.
Useful if you’re a comms/PR person whose senior leader wants a substack.
Ghost and buttondown seem to be the popular alternatives.
Reposted by Mags L Halliday
“That explanation is patriarchy, and feminists have been talking about it for a very long time now, so you’ll forgive me if I get pissy when you can’t find room for it in any of your 3,000 scathing tweets.”
Lord forgive me, but it's time to go back to the old me: Trying to get dudes on the Internet to say "patriarchy" about the Epstein files:
You Know, You Can Just Say "Patriarchy"
These analyses of the Epstein case are... missing something.
jude-doyle.ghost.io
February 7, 2026 at 3:44 PM
“That explanation is patriarchy, and feminists have been talking about it for a very long time now, so you’ll forgive me if I get pissy when you can’t find room for it in any of your 3,000 scathing tweets.”
I switched to borrowing the Rebus books from the library.
February 7, 2026 at 3:51 PM
I switched to borrowing the Rebus books from the library.
T K Maxx for the win.
February 7, 2026 at 2:19 PM
T K Maxx for the win.
I stopped buying the Rebus books when the A format size was discontinued for the B format because then the books no longer matched on the shelf.
I’m currently collecting the A format Marple ‘Signature’ paperbacks second hand.
I’m currently collecting the A format Marple ‘Signature’ paperbacks second hand.
February 7, 2026 at 2:13 PM
I stopped buying the Rebus books when the A format size was discontinued for the B format because then the books no longer matched on the shelf.
I’m currently collecting the A format Marple ‘Signature’ paperbacks second hand.
I’m currently collecting the A format Marple ‘Signature’ paperbacks second hand.
Teen has complained they feel attacked. And also that this is inaccurate as they spend all their time lying on the floor of their room.
I got their permission to feed this back.
I got their permission to feed this back.
Dexter Livingstone, 37, claimed that he needed the rest after a long week at work – by which he meant a long couple of hours working from home, followed by many more hours of binge watching Battlestar Galactica.
“I’m just going to veg out on my sofa today” says autistic man who just vegges out on sofa every day
An autistic man who announced plans to “have a chilled one on the couch today” neglected to mention that he has a chilled one on the couch every day, it has been rumoured. Dexter Livingstone, 37,…
thedailytism.com
February 7, 2026 at 1:41 PM
Teen has complained they feel attacked. And also that this is inaccurate as they spend all their time lying on the floor of their room.
I got their permission to feed this back.
I got their permission to feed this back.
Reposted by Mags L Halliday
Absolutely tremendous work here, no notes.
(Apart from to say that this proposal is by the actual president of RIBA)
(Apart from to say that this proposal is by the actual president of RIBA)
February 7, 2026 at 9:24 AM
Absolutely tremendous work here, no notes.
(Apart from to say that this proposal is by the actual president of RIBA)
(Apart from to say that this proposal is by the actual president of RIBA)